Oh So Nice...And Naughty

by Starla Kaye

  She stared at his big hand resting on his leg. That kind of hand would no doubt apply some serious sting. She thought about what he'd said and knew some of it was right. Her father would be horrified to know how she'd practically stalked Sean, flaunted herself in front of him to get his attention. Yes, she'd been a little uncomfortable with the other men gaping at her. But she'd wanted Sean's attention...and now she had it. Just not in the way she'd hope for.

  "Okay, I acted brazenly. But your friends were worried about you. I just wanted to..." Lie. She hadn't gone after him for his friends' sake. It had been all about her and her silly plan.

  This time he reached for her hand and pulled her to his side. She gasped in surprise as he tugged her over his lap. She wriggled, but he tucked her close to him and held her in place with an arm over her lower back. To her mortification, he shoved the short skirt over her back and tugged her panties down to mid-thigh.

  "Don't do this," she said, and yet she stopped struggling. Did she really want him to do it? Was she that desperate for any kind of his attention?

  His hand smoothed over her bare cheeks and she shivered. Her lower lips pulsed and felt odd against his slacks. "Sean..."

  A stinging slap landed on one quivering buttock and then the other. She arched backward, gasping in surprise.

  "I think you've needed a spanking for a while." He smacked her a quick half dozen times.

  Her fingers curled around the edge of the cushion in front of her. "That's ridiculous. My father used to say the same thing. But I've never needed a spanking."

  That punishing hand smoothed over the stinging flesh and his voice grew deeper, huskier. "Some women need discipline; some women accept it even if they complain a bit. I think you're one of those." He stroked between her legs, stroked her vulva, and touched her hardened clit. "Some women get turned on by being taken over a man's knee and getting her butt warmed."

  Was she really one of those women? She'd never liked it when her father had spanked her. But lying over Sean's hard thighs with her bare bottom vulnerable to whatever he wanted to do wasn't totally disgusting. Especially not when he caressed her. She couldn't stop the shuddery sigh when he lightly spanked her again and then smoothed his hand over the same spot.

  She felt his erection harden next to her hip. She wanted him, too.

  "I'm getting distracted," he grouched. "You need to go to bed tonight with a sore ass. You need to have something to think about and remind you of the importance of behaving properly."

  She tensed. He was serious now. This wasn't going to be any kind of foreplay. So get up! You don't have to take this. She didn't move.

  By the time he finished, she was squirming all over the place. His hand was as hard as a paddle and stung just as much. She'd kicked up her legs only to have them spanked back down. She'd thrown a hand back only to have it held in place. Promising she'd never act so brazenly again hadn't gotten her anywhere either. When Sean decided she needed a spanking, he meant it.

  The instant he stopped, she scrambled off his lap. Her bottom hurt something awful and tears were streamed down her face. She dashed at them and asked sobbingly, "Are you happy now?"

  He stood and dared to thumb away some of the tears. "Not really."

  "You're not staying, are you? To..." Had she really been about to say 'have sex with me'? Did she have no pride? He'd just turned her over his knee and spanked her.

  "Honey, I want you so damn bad it's almost killing me. But, no, I'm not staying." He drew in a deep breath. "And, no, I'm not taking you to bed now...or ever."

  He strode toward the front door and she jerked up her panties, winced, and hurried after him. "Ever?"

  "Never." He looked at her, his eyes troubled. "You deserve better than a broken down ex-football player."

  This wasn't how her plan was supposed to go. He was supposed to have been so enticed by this ridiculously skimpy costume that he wanted her bad. Okay, he'd sort of said he did. But what was with all this noble stuff? All she'd gotten out of this whole thing was a darn spanking!

  "I wanted you to be my first..." She clamped a hand over her mouth, horrified at what she'd almost admitted. Her face flamed every bit as much as her bottom.

  "First what?" he asked suspiciously. When she didn't answer and then refused to meet his eyes, he asked in shock, "Your first lover? Surely not."

  She stormed by him, yanked open the door, and shoved him outside. Red face or not, she glowered at him. "I'll find someone else." Then she slammed the door in his stunned face.

  Chapter Three

  "I'll find someone else...first lover...find someone else..."

  The words had rolled over and over in Sean's tortured mind for two solid weeks. He heard them again now as he grunted and struggled with the fiftieth leg press on his Bowflex home gym. Sweat rolled down his face, beaded his bare chest. His thighs shook and his knee screamed at him. He knew he had the resistance up too high, but he needed the extra intense workout this morning. Surely if he wore his damn body out he'd finally get Kandee and all of her many temptations out of his mind. He'd be too tired to function, including fantasy-wise. Well, he had to function around the ranch. Soon, too. He'd be expected to show up for helping with the chores in less than an hour.

  He did one last leg press and collapsed against the padded back. After spending almost two hours between the treadmill, the elliptical, and now this, his body was done in. His heart pounded. The cardio exercise had been good, but at a near-killer level. The team's physical therapist would have been happy. His after surgery physical therapist would not. Neither of them mattered anyway. What he did now, he did purely for himself. But, damn, he missed working out with his teammates. Hearing them moan and groan, listening to them foolishly challenge each other to do more, smelling the sweat of all the hard-working men. He even missed the coach ragging at them to work harder, to play smarter, to...

  Never again would he have any of those experiences. Damn, damn, damn.

  He crawled off the piece of equipment and was grateful he could manage to move. When he'd started this self-designed workout in the very early mornings not long after moving here, he'd been focused on getting his wounded body back in basic condition. It had been a slow process building it up again. Now he was moving to the next level, not the football-playing level, but at least to the near-athlete level. He sure didn't want to start getting a beer gut like some of his old high school teammates had now. He'd always been proud of his hard six-pack, his muscled thighs and biceps, and his taut ass. Of course, part of why he'd liked all of that was because his lovers did.

  Scowling, he grabbed a nearby towel and wiped the sweat from his face. Lovers. Long gone lovers. He hadn't had a woman running her hands over him--anywhere over him--in more than seven months. He hadn't touched a woman's softness, slid into her welcoming warmth in far too long.

  He tossed the towel toward an open hamper by the door of his exercise room. Wrong. He'd touched a woman's softness exactly two weeks ago today. He'd smoothed his hand over Kandee's bare ass...and then he'd spanked it.

  "I wanted you to be my first..."

  God! Would her words never stop haunting him? And how had she made it to thirty--right?--without having had a lover? The woman was heart-stoppingly gorgeous. Were all the men normally around her blind? He hadn't been lying when he'd told her he wanted to fuck the hell out of her. But he sure wasn't going to do that...ever, like he'd also told her. When was she heading back to Houston? Not soon enough for him.

  He glanced down as he headed for a shower. Shit! His damn cock was shoving at his workout shorts. Just thinking about her gave him a raging hard-on. It was time he ended his hermit-like existence out here at the ranch and hung out with some of his friends at the bar on Saturday night. Time he found a woman willing to look beyond the broken-down football player and at the sexually-pleasing man he could be. He needed to get laid by a woman as not interested in a relationship as he was.

  "I'll find someone else."

  He stom
ped into the bathroom and turned on the shower. Jerking off his shorts, he stepped inside and sucked in a steely breath as the cold water hit him. Just what he needed. As he stood under the pounding shower, he swore a blue streak. He wouldn't have sex with Kandee O'Connor--couldn't. But he sure damn hated the idea of some other man sliding into her sweet, tight body for the first time.

  * * *

  Kandee sat across from Aimee at her kitchen bar while her friend prepared another pan of chocolate chip cookies for the oven. One sheet full was already cooling on racks only inches from her. The smell was killing her, the temptation to snatch one almost more than she could stand. But they were for Aimee's daughter Caroline's birthday party at school tomorrow.

  Aimee glanced at her, smiling. "Go ahead, take one. Just one."

  "I'll pass. It's like that 'you can't eat just one potato chip' thing. If I had one, I'd have to have the whole sheet's worth of cookies. It wouldn't be pretty." She purposely focused across the room at Aimee's collection of teapots in a tall glass cabinet. "I need to start collecting something."

  "You used to have a huge collection of dolls."

  She still had that collection at her parents' house, although her mother had moved it all to one of the many bedrooms now. She didn't feel like they were really hers anymore. "I guess I need to figure out where I'm going to live first. I don't want get more stuff for that compact condo I live in now. No extra space at all."

  "You don't like your condo anymore? I thought you said it was just the right size for you." Aimee looked puzzled when Kandee faced her once more.

  Kandee shrugged. "It's okay for now...or has been. I want more space eventually for when I add a kid or two to my life." At Aimee's immediate grin of delight, she inwardly groaned. Why had she said anything about kids? At least she hadn't admitted she didn't like her job either, that she was considering doing something else. If she knew what that something else was.

  "And a husband." Aimee frowned. "Not Sean Masters, of course."

  They didn't agree on the whole marriage thing and probably never would. With a sigh, Kandee offered her same line of protest. "I don't need a husband to have a family. Lots of women adopt or go to a sperm bank, which I'm leaning toward."

  Then she recalled her friend's comment about Sean and huffed indignantly. "There's nothing wrong with Sean Masters. I think he has potential to be a good husband, after he's sown all of his wild oats, that is."

  Not that she wanted him for a husband. She only wanted him for his body...as a lover. Had wanted him! After he'd dared to spank her--and not as she'd wanted in foreplay--and then basically spurned her, she was sort of done with him. At least she would be if she could stop thinking about him every other second of the day.

  "You've been grumbling about him for days, actually since Halloween. But you never did tell me what he did to get on your bad list again." Aimee looked pointedly at her. "Pretty please. Tell me."

  Kandee rolled her eyes and fought down an urge to laugh. Aimee didn't easily give up on a matter, and she'd been worried ever since Kandee had stupidly told her that she wasn't happy with him. After being determined to get him to take care of her virginity problem, it was a complete about-face. Aimee wanted the full scoop. Never, ever could she tell her what really happened. Getting spanked was definitely a private matter.

  "As I said, he didn't like the way I was supposedly flirting at the party. He reminded me that my parents would not have approved." She almost reached for a cookie in comfort, but stopped herself just in time. "I was not flirting."

  "Not exactly, no. But you were doing everything you could to get Sean's attention. Which you did." Aimee carried the cookie sheet to the oven and put it inside.

  Unable to stand the temptation another second, Kandee slid off the bar stool and walked across the room to lean against a different counter. "I've decided I don't want his attention anymore." Right? Right!

  Aimee faced her, beaming, determination in her eyes. "Great! I've got the perfect man for you in mind. Conveniently, he's coming to dinner here tomorrow night. And, even more conveniently, so are you. I love it when a plan comes together."

  Kandee had felt suspicious when Aimee had pulled this sudden dinner party on her yesterday. Aimee had been grimly determined that she agree to come. Since she was tired of eating at home by herself, she'd agreed. Now though... "Didn't I tell you I wasn't interested in blind dates?"

  "It won't be a blind date. You'll both be here as friends of ours. You'll get to know Eric Boswell. He's a really great pediatrician from Colorado Springs, in town for a couple of weeks for Thanksgiving with his family. The Boswells moved here a few years after you left."

  "Take a breath, Aimee."

  Aimee smiled and obediently took a breath, then went right on with her descriptions. "He's tall, blond, has the most striking green eyes, and he's in good physical shape. Not beer-bellied like some of Chad's friends, but not hard-muscled like Sean either. Just perfect."

  Kandee had to laugh. "That's quite a sales pitch. How long have you been practicing it?" Maybe it would be all right to do this. It wasn't like sharing dinner with their mutual friends would be a real date. And just maybe he might turn out to be someone to consider as another possible solution for her "little problem."

  * * *

  "Aimee is playing matchmaker," Chad said in disgust. He stood next to Sean outside the bank where they'd happened to run into one another mid-afternoon. "With Kandee."

  Sean stiffened and tugged his collar up against the sharp breeze blowing over him. "I thought she didn't like or approve of me."

  "My wife is willing to tolerate you because you're my buddy. But, no, she is definitely not interested in matching you up with Kandee." Chad shook his head, his brow furrowing. "Especially since her friend hasn't been singing your praises after Halloween night. What did you do to her? Am I going to have to beat you up out of loyalty to my wife and Kandee?"

  "As if you could." Sean snorted and then heaved a sigh. So she wasn't 'singing his praises'? Guess he should have figured that after he'd burned her sweet butt. "We had a little disagreement, that's all. She wanted something from me that I wasn't willing to give. Now she's pissed at me."

  Chad's mouth quirked on one side and amusement sparked in his eyes. "About the virginity thing, huh? Hell, I'm glad to hear you didn't go along with Kandee's nutty plan. Not that I was supposed to know about any of that. But I overheard them talking one day. Crazy women."

  Nutty plan? The virginity thing! Hell! "How can she still be a virgin? That's unbelievable. Maybe she just hasn't..." He hadn't meant to say any of that. He just couldn't wrap his mind around something like that in this day and age.

  Chad shivered against the cold. "Evidently she's been too busy with all of that schooling and then working ridiculously long hours. She told Aimee she hasn't had time to think about dating much. She has dated, but she hasn't been interested in just casual sex like..."

  Like you went unsaid, but Sean understood. He'd never thought a lot about his lifestyle and his going from woman to woman...until lately. Now that he didn't have an abundance of women hanging around him--okay any women--he'd finally looked back on all of that. He didn't particularly like or respect the man he'd been.

  "She wasn't pleased when I wouldn't crawl into bed with her, not that I didn't want to, understand." He looked steadily at Chad. "The woman is built for loving. But she deserves someone a damn lot better than a worthless ex-football player."

  Her final words to him rolled through his mind and he fisted his hands in frustration. "Last thing she told me was that she would find someone else. Can you believe that? Hell!"

  Chad studied him for a couple of seconds. "You don't like that idea, do you?"

  "Of course not!"

  "Because you like her, don't you?"

  Sean gaped at Chad. "No. Yes. Whatever. It doesn't matter whether I like her or not. I'm not going to play her games."

  "What games?" Chad watched him with a raised eyebrow.

&nb
sp; "She flirted like crazy at the party. Sashayed all over the place, wiggled that sweet ass in front of me every chance she had. Then when we..." No way was he going to tell Chad about her whole spanking foreplay notion. Or tell him how he'd burned her butt for teasing him, and for trying to get him to do the wrong thing with her.

  "Not that I think you two would be good together, but you're too hard on yourself. I'm tired of you thinking of yourself as broken down, worthless just because you can't play football anymore." Chad frowned at him, clearly annoyed. "You're a good man. You were always more than the public saw, more than the gossip papers talked about. I know about the charities you worked with. I know how much money you gave..."

  Sean felt his face heating. "I don't want to talk about that."

  "You've never liked showing the world the real Sean Masters. I know that more than anyone. It's time to let the jock face go. Time you let people see--"

  "I'm not ready." He didn't want to continue on with this sore subject. From the moment he'd been a football star in junior high people had judged him in a certain way. He was a jock, all football and nothing else mattered. So he'd buried a lot of stuff inside him, except Chad knew his secrets. He needed to come fully to terms with not being that football star any longer, with working damn hard to be a rancher. Maybe when he did then he'd be able to start peeling away some of his layers and show everyone the man none of them even suspected him of being.

  Chad put up a hand of surrender. "Okay, buddy. I've got your back no matter what." He glanced at his watch. "I need to get back to the office."

  Sean turned toward his truck parked nearby but stopped when Chad called out to him. "Hey, you should come eat with us tomorrow night, too."

  Oh wouldn't that just be great! Kandee and Aimee would both hate that. Still, he was Chad's friend and he could come if his buddy wanted him there. Besides, he could check out this other guy Aimee was trying to match Kandee with. Yes, he liked that idea. He could do the "older brother" thing. Even if he didn't feel anything at all like an older brother should.